Typically, an injector body used to inject fuel into a combustion chamber of an engine includes an internal cavity and a needle disposed within the internal cavity. Moreover, the injector body includes a sac portion defining one or more spray holes adjacent to the sac region. When manufacturing the injector body, manufacturers typically form the internal cavity prior to forming the spray holes of the injector body. Further, such processes are generally performed by carrying out Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) or laser drilling on the injector body.
In creating the spray holes after the creation of the internal cavity, added care may be needed in protecting internal walls of the injector body. One drawback that could possibly result when laser drilling the spray holes after the internal cavity is that laser energy could become incident on the internal walls of the injector body after removing material for the spray holes from the injector body. Therefore, the energy from the laser drilling process may inadvertently remove material from the internal walls of the injector body.
For reference, U.S. Pat. No. 6,070,813 (hereinafter referred to as “the '813 patent”) discloses that in order to prevent the laser beam from passing through the tip portion of the injector body and impinging on the untargeted interior surface, a backing material is interposed between the interior surface and the untargeted interior surface. However, with use of backing materials such as that disclosed in the '813 patent, time, costs, and effort entailed in forming the injector body may be increased. Hence, there is a need for a simplified method that overcomes the aforementioned shortcomings typically encountered in manufacturing injector bodies.